The last GEDI, I think not!

So this may be the last GEDI blog post for the semester, but our work is far from done. I can see the parallels between 21st century education and the newest wave of (our namesake) Star Wars films. It has been nearly 40 years since the original Star Wars movie, and even though it is still an amazing story, it has been time for an update. In watching Episode VII, the recent edition to the epic saga, one can see how similar the story is to the original 1977 plot. But the newest edition to this saga allows for much more inclusion and diversity. I’ve heard people say that movies with minority and women as the main characters don’t tend to be as popular. Well, Episode VII was the highest grossing film of all time!

Just as movies can be updated to the times, the same must happen for education. The ways that teachers worked in the past do set a good a framework for what we do in education now, but we have a much more diverse population and meeting their individualized learning needs can be done. The former “one size fits all” form of education has now become outdated. We also have a whole new set of technological facilitators to learning that didn’t exist in prior teaching.

“Education in mathematics is a prime example. It was long assumed that females failed at math because their brains were structured differently than men’s. Then came a generation of pedagogues who saw the secret hidden in plain sight: Women are told early on that “girls can’t do math,” so they come to class with minds paralyzed by fear. Today, as many math educators pay attention to emotions as well as to the intellect, women succeed in math at rates similar to those of men” (p. 10).

This shows that it is time for us to update the way we see education. I’m in Counselor Education, so focus on feelings is at the essence of what we do as educators. Granted this is more specific to this field, but the whole point of being a GEDI is to learn from how other disciplines emphasize education. I am excited to see that we have a female lead in the most recent couple of Star Wars movies that have come out. The time has come for more inclusion and diversity in our culture, film, and especially education. This may be “The Last GEDI” post for this semester, but the legacy of it will continue for years to come in all that we have taken away from this class. We are the next generation of educators and therefore we have the force to make education all that it can be. Let’s continue to improve education for the 21st century and more!

7 thoughts on “The last GEDI, I think not!”

Agreed! Thanks to all the effort that everyone has made to mitigate (eliminate, hopefully) the bias, prejudice or priority over different social groups, we are really changing the world in a better way.
I’m so excited to see how we as part of GEDI communities try more efforts to make our world even better.

I like the example you provided about females failing at math because their brains are structured different than mens! It actually quite funny! I think this comes from the people’s perception that woman think about issues differently than men do, and this is where books like “Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus” come from and become successful. I personally think all of this is not true. It all comes down to the education and cultural values every individual has. Great post!

Hi Dalya, I was trying to post a reply to your post about the humanities but no matter what I do, it doesn’t seem to show up on the site. This is what I was trying to say though:
I just read a post about learning that gets forgotten along the way when taking all of the courses that we HAVE to take instead of just choosing accordingly. While I can think of a lot of material that I have forgotten because I never went back to that subject, I can also see so much value in people taking a variety of classes. Whether or not someone is going into a humanities field, learning from these types of classes is vital to society. The point that you made that resonates most with me is tolerance. Being a counselor, acceptance of differences is at the essence of what we do. Having more people take humanities classes (whether or not they wish to do into that field) can have an amazing impact on society. And I completely agree that people should choose their passion over a job that will just pay better. I chose a psychology undergraduate degree fully aware that I would have to pursue graduate education to do anything with the degree. But I wouldn’t take that decision back for any reason because I am passionate about what I do, which doesn’t really make it work then does it?

I love your analogy of our class and the new Star Wars movies! I’m actually really kinda nervous and sad that this class is ending. I feel like I’ve learned so much and had so many much needed conversations. But the work is not ending. Now we get to take what we’ve learned and put it into practice. We get to start training the new professional and change the current education system from within. And as with the other GEDI, we will always be connected by the Force, no matter where we go from here. 🙂

“This may be “The Last GEDI” post for this semester, but the legacy of it will continue for years to come in all that we have taken away from this class. We are the next generation of educators and therefore we have the force to make education all that it can be. ” I think that is exactly why we have this class.
Even when you are a teacher, your teaching can be adjusted and keep improved. It might be a good idea to have some kind of “GEDI” for instructors in order to share experiences and learn from each other.

Great ideas! I like how you compare the contemporary teaching to the star war movies. That is very interesting to see how you connect them. I agree that the new generation of the teachers and teaching styles has arrived since now we are facing a much more diverse world than ever. We need to open our mind and try new things to fit into the changing situations. Even if this is the last post of the course, we will keep thinking and practice in the future. We will never stop being a GEDI. Thank you for sharing and inspiring!

thank you for your post. This course made me reflect on how I see myself as a member of teaching community and how as a community we are capable of producing creative solutions as much as we interact and share.